Moonlight Vigil
by Tali Rancourt
Summary: A group of watchers keep vigil outside a strange priest's house. One of their number tells a story to the children, about the priest and his unusual new goddess...


The dim moonlight filtered through the trees and bathed the small house in the clearing in soft silver light. The house was silent, and would have seemed empty but for the flicker of candles in the windows and the curl of smoke from the chimney. At the edge of the clearing, along the path leading from the city to the house, the faithful had gathered to keep their nightly vigil. They waited in the semidarkness, with neither torches nor candles, gathered in small groups and talking quietly.   
  
The children among them formed their own small group, centered around a pale, silver-haired elf reclining on a tree stump. The only elf in this gathering of human men and women, he looked almost unearthly as the moonlight reflected off his hair. He had driven his sword into the ground beside him, and leaned on it as he talked, looking down at the children. As he spoke, they listened raptly, and whispered back and forth to one another.  
  
"He says he's seen her, you know." murmured a boy with curly brown hair to the girl sitting next to him.  
  
Wide-eyed, she blinked, and then turned to stare up at the elf in awe. "Really?"  
  
The boy nodded, and grinned. "That's what he says. And he says she's just like her picture."  
  
"You mean she really is a Drow?" another boy whispered. "Oh, wow. I thought they were kinda like monsters."  
  
"She's not a monster!" the girl interjected. "She's good. She…" She paused, furrowed her brow in thought, then carefully continued. "She's a nice lady, an' she chases away bad things."  
  
The second boy laughed. "C'mon, Natalie. Not the wolf and dragon story again."  
  
The first boy shook his head. "Now you did it, Ellien. She's going to tell the whole story again."  
  
Natalie pouted, wrinkling her nose, and folded her arms over her chest. "It happened! There was a monster outside my window, an' she came with a big black dragon an' a big silver wolf an' they killed the monster!"  
  
"Suuure they did," taunted the first boy. He paled when he heard the elf clear his throat, and realized that the entire group had fallen silent and was watching him.  
  
"Joseph, you really shouldn't tease your sister," the elf gently reprimanded. "Tarlyn does speak of a wolf and a dragon that are dearly beloved by the Lady. Who's to say that young Natalie hasn't seen them?"  
  
"I'm sorry, Castino," Joseph muttered sheepishly. He bit his lip and peered up at the elf for a moment, then asked, "Is it really true that you've seen the Spider Killer?"  
  
All the children's eyes turned to Castino hopefully as he leaned back, folded his hands together, and rested them on one knee. "Yes, I've seen the Lady."  
  
Natalie waved a hand until she got his attention, and then quietly inquired, "Is she really as pretty as her picture?" She smiled shyly, head half bowed, as she waited for his answer.  
  
Castino gazed up at the moon for a moment in silence, and then murmured, "More so, little one. I've been away from the city for a long time now, and I hope that perhaps one night if I'm lucky, I may see her again." He leaned forward and leaned on his sword again.  
  
"Tell us about her!" one child demanded, and the rest soon took up the chant. Castino merely laughed, and raised his hands for silence, grinning broadly at the circle of children.  
  
"So, you'd like to hear the story again, would you?" He waited for the eager nods and excited murmurs to die down, then nodded, looking thoughtful. When the group had fallen into rapt silence, he began to speak.  
  
"Almost a year ago, I found myself here for the first time. When I came into the city, I heard people talking about a strange priest out on the edge of town, and the strange new ideas he was talking about. People said he was a dark elf, and his new goddess was one too, but that they were good, and they wanted to help." He shrugged and tucked a few strands of silver back behind the point of one ear.  
  
"I thought maybe it was worth a listen, so I followed the rumors, and they led me here." He looked up, and looked thoughtfully toward the house at the center of the clearing for a moment before he continued. "I don't know what I expected, really, but it certainly wasn't being greeted as an equal and a friend by a dark elf," he admitted, "or, for that matter, a priest."  
  
"That was Tarlyn, wasn't it?" piped up one of the children, and Castino nodded and chuckled.  
  
"Aye. That was Tarlyn. He introduced himself by name, asked mine, and asked me inside." He gestured toward the house, and then leaned on his sword again. "It's a small place, but it was filling fast. People were sitting on the floor and standing in corners. And then he began to speak…"  
  
Castino quirked a small smile, and gazed into the distance. He no longer really looked at the children, lost in his own story and the telling of it. "He is a priest. That much is clear, but he is a priest like no other. He does not preach, or lecture; he speaks. He discusses. He reads from his book, and then everyone is welcome to speak their questions, or their ideas."  
  
He tilted his head to one side, and mused, "That's the way the Lady does things, he says. She's the first god I'd ever heard of who didn't have a lot of demands and 'thou shalt nots'. He said that she only had one rule…"  
  
Some of the children, taught by their parents, echoed the words with him. "Above all else, always think for yourself. Accept nothing blindly, not even my word."  
  
Castino laughed and clapped his hands. "Very good. Someday, you may even be old and wise enough to understand how important that is." He smirked, settled back on the tree stump, and folded his hands together in his lap once more. "She didn't sound like a god. She sounded like someone with some common sense… which I suppose isn't all that common. And he didn't sound like a priest." He grinned, eyes lighting. "He sounded for all the world like a man in love, and so he was."  
  
He sighed and cracked his knuckles. "We sat and talked until late that night. It wasn't like a church. People came and went as they pleased, and there was no need to feel guilty, nor to excuse yourself. You simply joined and left the discussion as it suited you."  
  
He smiled as the memory came clearly once again. "That's why I barely noticed when I felt someone behind me, until I heard the voice. A woman's voice, speaking in Drowish. 'You're far too good to me, beloved.' I turned around, and there she was."  
  
"Tell us about her!" the children commanded.  
  
Castino grinned, sat up a bit straighter, and pointed up at the sky as he talked. "A dark elf woman, with skin as black as the night sky, and hair as white as starlight. Her eyes are red and hot like coals, but kind. She smiles. She's small and dark and light and beautiful." He laughed quietly. "Never thought I'd say that of a Drow woman."  
  
He cleared his throat, and his cheeks colored faintly. "Ah. Yes. Well. I digress. There she was, and he just stopped speaking and closed his book, then turned and replied to her in Drowish, 'Tali… I've missed you so.' Oh, but it was a sight. He walked across the room and put his arms around her."  
  
He shook his head, marveling at the image even this long after he'd seen it. "He was holding a goddess, the way a man might hold his wife, and she was stroking the points of his ears. That's…" He paused and considered it a moment, trying to find an adequate way to explain to children what an intimate gesture it was, then finished lamely, "…a very special thing, to an elf, even a Drow."  
  
Stretching and yawning, he sighed, "Eventually they let go of each other, and she greeted everyone, then he showed us out. The people took up watch here where we sit now, and left the two of them to be together in the night." His face colored again at the memory of the sounds he'd heard that night. "She loves him very much, I think. I know he loves her."  
  
"And that's how it happened," he finished. "No one ever saw her leave, but by morning, she was gone, and the next evening, he opened his home and spoke of her again."  
  
Natalie curled one arm around a rag doll and sighed wistfully. "I hope I get to see her one day."  
  
The children all whirled around to look, and Castino grinned broadly, when a soft female voice from behind the little girl murmured, "Oh, I strongly suspect you will." Behind the children, in a red silk dress, carrying a blanket-wrapped bundle in her dark arms, stood the Drow woman Castino had described.  
  
"Are you really the Spider Killer?" asked Joseph, wide-eyed.  
  
The woman nodded once. "That I am. My name is Talisantia T'Sarran Rancourt, the Spider Killer, and the Lady of Justice." She smiled fondly, then looked down as she felt a tug on her dress.  
  
Natalie stood beside the woman, peering up at her hopefully. "Lady… is there really a wolf an' a dragon?"  
  
The woman grinned hugely, and eased down to her knees to look the little girl in the eyes. "There are, Natalie. The wolf is my husband; my most beloved of all… his name is Dusty. The dragon is my very best friend, and his name is Alton." She leaned over and kissed the girl on the forehead. "Together, we look after little ones like you. We kill monsters and chase away bad dreams and bad things in the night."  
  
As the Lady rose to her feet again, Natalie turned to the two boys who had teased her. "See? I told you!"  
  
The Lady merely smiled, and turned her attention to Castino. "Hello again," she murmured. "I hear you from time to time… I don't get many of your kind yet. I'm honored that you find my ideas worth listening to."  
  
Castino shook his head and smiled. "The honor is mine, Lady. You're the first power who ever made sense to me. Just watch. Someday, even the council at Evermeet will overlook your appearance and flock to your banner."  
  
The woman just laughed. "Someday… someday can be a long, long time. But maybe you're right. Good luck, Castino." While she turned to greet the remainder of the watchers, the door of the small house opened, and Tarlyn came out and made his way down the path with the light step of a barely-restrained run. He stopped and waited a few steps away until she had finished her greetings and the crowd slowly drew back, forming a circle around the two of them.  
  
Tarlyn's eyes lit up, and he stepped closer, reaching out to her. "Tali, I've missed you so. It's been so long…" he whispered, then paused as the bundle the woman carried shifted and let out a whimper. He blinked, and reached out to slowly begin unwrapping the blankets. "Oh, no wonder you haven't been traveling! You've had another little one! I should get my book and my pen and record the birth… Is this one a son or a daughter? When was the birth?"  
  
Tali laughed softly. "Slow down, beloved. Slow down." She shifted the blanket-wrapped infant and slid an arm around Tarlyn's shoulders to hug him gently. "This one is a daughter. She was born just this evening."  
  
Tarlyn hugged Tali back gently, then pushed a strand of silver hair back behind his ears, and stared open-mouthed at her. "But… this evening? You shouldn't be traveling yet. I'm astonished that Dusty let you leave. I could record the birth later… She should be with… her… father…" He trailed off into silence as he moved the blanket away from the infant's face and stared down into the eyes of a tiny black-skinned elf. The child gazed back up with him with eyes as blue as his own.  
  
Tali smiled fondly and nodded once, very slowly, in agreement. "You're right, beloved. She should. That's why I brought her to him for naming…" She eased the child into Tarlyn's outstretched arms. "Would you like to hold your daughter?"  
  
Tears welled up in the Drow priest's eyes as he lifted the infant and held her against his chest, gazing at her face and her tiny, pointed ears. "Nath'cice…" he whispered in his native tongue, then translated, "Daughter of Destiny. Nath'cice T'Sarran… the child of my destiny."  
  
When Tali nodded approvingly, the gathered watchers burst into applause. Once they quieted, Castino cleared his throat and suggested, "We should leave them, and let the man spend some time with his child."   
  
He bowed to the couple, murmured, "Congratulations, Tarlyn. And to you, Lady. Good eve," then walked away into the trees until he was lost in the darkness. After a moment, the rest of the watchers followed suit, leaving father, daughter, and goddess alone in the dim moonlight that filtered through the trees. 


End file.
